NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Beverley Allen - 2023 Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

5/4/2023

I was extremely pleased to find out last week that Australian artist Beverley Allen is the second recipient and 2023 winner of the Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art. Notably this award is for a contribution to botanical art - and not just for being an excellent botanical artist.

I think she is a Modern Master par excellence and a very quiet force of nature! She's very definitely an excellent choice in terms of what she has done within the wider family of botanical art and illustration at both a national and international level. Very, very few have achieved as much as Beverley.

The Shirley Sherwood Award is an accolade presented once a year in recognition of an artist’s contribution to Botanical Art. The prestigious award includes a prize of £10,000 and a dedicated space in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to display a selected artwork for a year.

Beverley Allen with her painting of Strelitizia nicolai - featured in the "Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art Exhibition" at Kew in 2019.

About the Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

Last year, Dr Shirley Sherwood inaugurated her new Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art for an artist who has greatly contributed to the field of contemporary botanical art. The Award comprises:

a sum of £10,000 and
a dedicated space to exhibit work and highlight the artist's contribution in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.

Two paintings of Strelitzia nicolai by Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) - see below - are now hanging in the Gallery. - at the end of Gallery 6. The one on the right was

the feature image of the exhibition The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art - see Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew
used on the cover of the book produced in association with the exhibition.
featured in my review of the Australaisian artists in the exhibition

Beverly is a spectacular artist with bold and confident compositions. Full of clarity, vivid colour and stunning detail, her paintings beautifully capture the splendour of the natural world and have earned her both the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal and the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanical Garden.
Shirley Sherwood

Shirley Sherwood pictured last week (30.03.23.) at the Award Exhibition of Beverley's artwork in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew.

This post is about Beverley Allen and why she won the award. It's a summarised account of her professional life and development of her contribution to botanical art on an international level. It is also full of photographs of Beverley that I've taken over the years!

Links in this post are to official websites or pages on this website.

Timeline about Beverley Allen and her art

Beverley Allen with her painting "Bambusa Vulgaris 'Striata' (Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney)" 2005 (watercolour on paper; 29" by 66" ) - at the 'Botanicals - Environmental Expressions in Art' Exhibition, at Kew Gardens in 2013. Collection: The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection

1945: born in 1945 in Sydney, Australia. She was awarded a BA in Fine Arts from Sydney University prior to developing a career as a graphic designer.
1997: She began studying botanical art and became a botanical artist in 1998.

She told me back in 2017 that she had - like very many other botanical artists - been greatly inspired by the cover illustration of Contemporary Botanical Artists which was the first ever book about botanical art by Shirley Sherwood. So below you can see the the inspiration - the painting of the 'Cape Blue Waterlily' by Pandora Sellers on the front cover. (Colleen and Beverley were in the Gallery as they were organising the upcoming exhibition by the Florilegium and I was fortunate that we met on the day her inspiration was on display!
(This painting is also on display at the moment in "The Wonderful World of Water Plants" exhibition at SSG.)

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Botanic Endeavour: RBG Sydney Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections

3/5/2022

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Back in 2020, one of the significant botanical exhibitions of the year was that of "Botanic Endeavour" - in Sydney. This was the second exhibition - in association with the publication of a new book (see below) - by the Florilegium Society of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (RBGS).

This, of course was the year, when public spaces were being locked down and then reopening and then locking down again. At the same time that people were being careful about where they travelled and how and which public spaces they visited. It really wasn't a great year for art exhibitions.

My recollection is that the planned exhibition was cancelled. Then in November 2020, a webinar was held to talk about the second project, the book and the paintings

It's really pleasing therefore to hear that there's going to be another chance to see Botanic Endeavour: The Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections. This announcement feels like it provides another opportunity for all those who were playing it safe, not travelling and not going to exhibitions in 2020 - or 2021.

The Society will present an exhibition of 50 recent botanical paintings linking the historic Banks’ and Solander specimens held in the National Herbarium of NSW with the Living Collection of the three Gardens. This project was created to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage in the Endeavour in 2020.

Curated by Colleen Morris, the focus is on these historic specimens; drawing attention to the time and place of their collection, their history and inviting reflection on their significance to science, to the Indigenous peoples, to those collecting them and to the Gardens now.

Some of the newly digitised Banks’ and Solander collection images will be displayed along with more treasures from the Daniel Solander Library including some of the Banks’ Florilegium plates and his specimen cabinet.

Details of the exhibition are below:

Venue: The Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Dates: Saturday 7th – Sunday 22nd May 2022
Hours: 10am - 4pm daily
Cost: FREE

Public transport is recommended as parking is limited.

The majority of the Banks and Solander specimens represented in the new works were collected at Botany Bay and the remainder from several locations in Queensland. Fresh plant material was sourced in many ways; with the co-operation of the botanic gardens in Cambridge, Oxford and Kew in the UK and a specialist nursery in California as well as from the three Gardens of the Trust in Australia. One artist sourced seeds from Western Australia and grew them in Cambridge; another painted from plants on the Amahlongwana River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In Australia, some material was obtained from specialist nurseries and grown on at home; naturally, many grow in Sydney and the areas of collection in Queensland.
The Florilegium at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney by Dianne Sutherland (one of the artists)

Botanic Endeavour - the book

The First Book by RBGS Florilegium Society (published 2016)

The second book - Botanic Endeavour - published 2020

Those visiting the exhibition will have a chance to buy the Botanic Endeavour book. Those living further afield, who would like a copy can find out more about it - and the first book - on my page about the Florilegium Societies.
Just scroll down until you get to Australasia and The Florilegium Society at The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust.

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Oxford Florilegium Exhibition opens tomorrow

21/11/2021

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The latest exhibition of the Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum Florilegium opens tomorrow (Monday 22nd November) at The Barn Gallery at St. John's College, St Giles, OX1 3JP.

It runs until 4th December and is open daily (12-6pm) - and there no need to book.â€‹
This exhibition helps to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of Oxford Botanic Garden.

Below you can see and find out about some of the artists contributing to both Florilegium and this exhibition.

Participating artists

The Oxford Florilegium group consists of fourteen enthusiastic painters who have worked for a decade to produce botanical illustrations that document the living collections of the Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Oxford.

Most of the artwork and exhibits are watercolour paintings but also include botanical illustrations using coloured pencils, graphite and pen & ink.

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The fourteen artists are:

Rosemary Wise - a professional botanical illustrator who has been employed by the department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University since 1965 and has received a number of prestigious awards for botanical illustration.
- In 1995, the Linnean Society awarded her the prestigious Jill Smythies Award given annually for published botanical illustration.
- To celebrate her 50 years at Plant Sciences in Oxford, she was awarded the Sibthorp Medal for 'life time services to botany'.
- She has also recently been awarded the Engler Medal in Silver, awarded annually by the International Association of Plant Taxonomy, as joint author with Terry Pennington of the monograph on The Genus Sloanea (Elaeo- carpaceae) in America (2017). Rosemary prepared over 100 detailed illustrations for the monograph including 20 new species discovered by Terry.
Maura Allen - a graduate of the Chelsea School of Botanical Painting, London, who now lives in Tasmania
Sandra Bates - Diploma in Botanical Illustration from the Society of Botanical Artists
Maureen Bayly
Janet Collett - Awarded the distance learning Diploma from the Society of Botanical Artists. Also a member of Bath Society of Botanical Artists and the Association of British Botanical Artists
Graham Furze - a pencil artist who works in both graphite and coloured pencils (see his botanical illustrations in Oxford Plant Systematics August 2021)
Sam Gallagher
Anne Girling - Has been a practising botanical artist for over 15 years. Also a member of both the Society of Botanical Artists and the Association of British Botanical Artists.
Tracy Howell - born in Australia and lives in Oxford. She studied studying Plants and Plantsmanship and Practical Horticulture at the Chelsea Physic Garden's English Gardening School. before studying Natural History Illustration with Rosemary Wise and, in 2009, Botanical Painting at the English Gardening School, Chelsea Physic Garden. She is also a member of Amicus Botanicus and the Cliveden Florilegium.
Penny Land - Became interested in botanical illustration after a two week course at Kew with Claire Dalby over thirty years ago. Subsequently completed the Diploma in Botanical Illustration with the South West Society of Botanic Art and Joined the Oxford Florilegium about 4 years ago
Cathie Lodge - Based in Maidenhead. Ttrained as a graphic designer at the Berkshire College of Art.
Barbara McLean - helps run the Florilegium with Rosemary Wise
Gaye Norman - a graduate of he Chelsea School of Botanical Art and a member of Amicus Botanicus
Diana Tubbs

You can see more of their artwork on their Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/obg_florilegium/

The aim of botanical illustration is to produce not only a picture that is pleasing to the eye but one which is botanically accurate, comprehensive and recognisable to species level. Such works broach the gap between art and science.
Rosemary Wise

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The illustrations in the Exhibition focus on themes including:

medicinal plants,
plants selected from the 1648 border, the Merton border, and
plants with a particular association with Oxford.
trees
plants from the newly planted Mediterranean rock garden.

Each piece typically features flowers, fruits, enlargements and floral dissections.

Prof. Simon Hiscock, Prof. Stephen Harris and Dr Chris Thorogood judge the annual submissions, assessing them for botanical accuracy, execution and composition.

â€‹See also my earlier post Oxford Florilegium Exhibition marks 400th anniversary of the UK's oldest botanic garden (29th October 2021)

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Oxford Florilegium Exhibition marks 400th anniversary of the UK's oldest botanic garden

29/10/2021

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This is about an upcoming exhibition of the Oxford Florilegium which opens next month.

2021 is the 400th anniversary of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in the UK, founded on July 25th 1621. Established as the Oxford Physic Garden for growing medicinal plants used to teach medical students, the Garden was the birthplace of botanical sciences at Oxford. It became known as the Oxford Botanic Garden in the 1830s to reflect its role in experimental botany.

As part of the Oxford Botanic Garden’s 400 year anniversary celebrations, the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and the Department of Plant Sciences are holding an Oxford Florilegium Exhibition.

Exhibition features:
- the work of 14 artists,
- a diverse range of art from throughout the Oxford Florilegium Collection
Venue: Barn Gallery, Kendrew Quad, Saint John’s College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JP (no. 22 on this pdf map of St John's College)
Dates: Monday 22 November to Saturday 4th December 2021
Hours: 12pm - 6pm.

To date, almost 80 illustrations by members of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum Florilegium Group have been accepted into the Herbarium archive. Following the judging for this year's exhibition more will be added to the growing collection.

Note 1: The image chosen for image above is Pinus nigra, black pine © Rosemary Wise. The tree is one of the oldest in the Oxford Botanic Garden and was planted in the Garden in the 1830s and much loved by JRR Tolkien. The original tree, often referred to as ‘Tolkien’s Pine’, shed two huge branches in 2014 and had to be felled. To mark the 400th anniversary, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales planted a special tree, propagated from a seed of the black pine (Pinus nigra) on his visit to mark the anniversary on 7th June 2021.

Exhibition Judges

The work will be judged for its botanical accuracy, execution and composition by

Professor Simon Hiscock - Director, University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Harcourt Arboretum (Christ Church)
Professor Stephen Harris, Druce Curator (Herbaria), Associate Professor in Plant Science (Christ Church)
Dr Chris Thorogood - Deputy Director & Head of Science, University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum

About the Florilegium

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The Highgrove Florilegium on splendid display in Chelsea

23/9/2021

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“The Highgrove Florilegium:
Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove”

Paintings are organised according to the different parts and rooms within the garden at Highgrove

After visiting the RHS London Botanical Art & Photography Show in Chelsea on Tuesday (of which more later), I walked down to Chelsea Barracks to see what I think might be the first display in London of all the paintings completed for the Highgrove Florilegium (Volumes 1 and 2) since 2009.

“The Highgrove Florilegium: Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove” is only on until Sunday 26th September. It's also very easy to access for those visiting the Chelsea Show. The paintings are hung in the former Guards Chapel in the former Chelsea Barracks - now known as the Garrison Chapel - which is now owned by The Prince's Foundation Trust - hence the location of the exhibit.

I cannot recommend this exhibition too much. The quality of the paintings is excellent.
In fact, this is a much better exhibition of contemporary botanical art than the current RHS Botanical Art Show.

The Cottage Garden

To my mind, it's also a much better exhibition than the original one twelve years ago, which was in a very small space in the Garden Museum at Lambeth Palace. (See my original review of the exhibition Exhibition Review: The Highgrove Florilegium at the Garden Museum (14th July 2009)

This time there's much more focus on the paintings and much less on the book - which is nowhere to be seen!

The big bonus of this exhibition is that the space is large and the paintings have been hung according to the different "rooms" of the garden where the subject plants were located. As such, it's a much better representation of the garden at Highgrove - which, of course, is what a florilegium is intended to do.

The paintings also look excellent on the green walls and they benefit from both natural light and additional lighting but both are up high so there's some reflection but not too much.

The Kitchen Garden and The Nursery

The Highgrove Florilegium is the first Royal Florilegium in the UK. It contains botanically accurate watercolour paintings of the plants grown in the garden of Highgrove near Tetbury in Gloucestershire - which has been the country home of the Prince of Wales since 1980.

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A Florilegium: Sheffield’s Hidden Garden

22/5/2021

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In July, a new botanical art book about a Florilegium will be published.
A Florilegium: Sheffield’s Hidden Garden has been written by Valerie Oxley in liaison with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.

front cover of the book

The book provides

an introduction to florilegia dating from the early herbals
a history of the Society’s Herbarium and the Gardens themselves
a selection of the botanical illustrations of plants in the garden held in the archive of The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.

The illustrations have all been drawn and painted by botanical artists who are past or present members of The Florilegium Society. In addition, each illustration included in the book is accompanied by a plant profile, stating where the plant was found in the wild and explaining something of its history, uses and botany.

About the Author

This book has been written by the Florilegium Society’s founding chair Valerie Oxley - in association with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.
Valerie is a freelance tutor in botanical illustration and the current President of IAPI (Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration), who inspired students from all over the world with her enthusiasm for natural history, and plant illustration in particular. She also:

developed the first Diploma in Botanical Illustration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield
used to moderate the Botanical Illustration Diploma Course at the RBG Edinburgh
wrote "Botanical Illustration" (2008) - an instruction book for aspiring botanical illustrators botanical which I highly recommend. You can read my review on this website and my summary (below) bodes well for the new book.

An excellent manual for anybody who wants to learn more about botanical illustration with a strong botanical perspective.
Book Review: Botanical Illustration by Valerie Oxley

Details of the book

Author: Valerie Oxley - in association with The Florilegium Society at Sheffield Botanical Gardens
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd
Publication date: 6th July 2021
Format:

Hardback (Price £25)
e-book
ISBN-10 : 1785008943 | ISBN-13 : 978-1785008948

Number of pages: 160 pages
Number of Illustrations: 100 colour illustrations
Weight: 843 g
Dimensions: 280 x 220 x 17 mm

The Florilegium Society's website does yet not provide a profile page for the book.
If you're interested in ordering a copy from the publisher, I suggest you click the link embedded in the title at the top of this post. and order direct from the publishers.

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The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers by Susan Christopher-Coulson

1/12/2019

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About the Winter Banner for 2019/20

"The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" by Susan Christopher-Coulson (Shirley Sherwood Collection) coloured pencil

The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers by Susan Christopher-Coulson - in a cropped format - is the new banner on the homepage of my website and my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page.

This is the first contemporary botanical image I've used since I created my website four and half years ago. There are two reasons for this change:

the routine one - I change the banner to try and suit the season every three months on the 1st December, 1st March, 1st June and 1st September.
Winter has always been a bit of a challenge - except when using images from the Southern Hemisphere!

However, I was very pleased to spot this image of "The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" by Susan Christopher-Coulson when reviewing the artwork hung in the Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art exhibition at Kew. It seemed very appropriate to me to honour the exhibition in some way over these winter months. When I saw her at the private view I asked whether I could use the image for the winter banner for my website and she very kindly agreed.

About Susan Christopher Coulson

Susan Christopher Coulson at the PV for Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery - where "The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" is currently hanging

Susan Christopher Coulson GM (1999) VPSBA is a very experienced botanical artist and teacher of botanical art whose chosen medium is coloured pencils.

Susan was born in Durham and trained as a fashion and textile designer, graduating with a degree in Fashion and Textiles from Kingston Polytechnic in 1977. She then lived in London for several years while working in the fashion industry as a designer / illustrator. She returned north with a young family and the subjects she drew began to change from fashion to plants.

The Botanical Artist

She'd become interested in the plant world while on country walks with her father during her childhood - which is also when drawing with coloured pencil also started as her preferred form of artistic expression. As an adult she expanded her techniques

She focused on developing drawings based on natural subjects, including botanical, and expanding her coloured pencil techniques, which have been her preferred medium since childhood. Their potential to create rich tonal depths as well as subtle transitions and translucent colours is a constant fascination as are the infinite possibilities offered by the botanical subjects, which she prefers to draw directly from live subjects.

Awards

Her work has received a variety of awards

She was awarded two Royal Horticultural Society gold medals in 1999 and 2001.
At annual exhibitions of both the Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Floral Painters (now defunct)

Collections and other notable information

Her artwork is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the RHS Lindley Library Collection and The Florilegium archive at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, as well as numerous private collections in the UK and abroad.
She has also produced commissions for a number of clients (and this is how to contact Susan if you're interested in commissioning her or asking her to teach)
Her artwork has also featured in a number of books about botanical art, notably those associated with the Society of Botanical Artists.
She was one of the two Vice Presidents of the Society of Botanical Artists between 2010 and 2018.
She continues to teach botanical art - using coloured pencils around the UK (see below)

Group of coloured pencil drawings by Susan Christopher Coulson exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists in 2015. (top left) Cures from the Potager; (top right) Bean Counting: In Pursuit of Diversity; (bottom left ) Medieval Medicinals, from an Apothcary's Garden; (bottom right) Winter Greens: In pursuit of Form and Colour in the Winter Garden

The Teacher

Susan is a well known and experienced teacher of botanical art using coloured pencils.
Her Teaching page on her website details those venues in the UK where Susan will be teaching workshops. You'll also find her listed as both a teacher on my Teachers Page and her courses and workshops on my Courses Page for the UK

Susan Christopher Coulson demonstrating how to use coloured pencils for botanical art at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2016

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Future Banners

In future, I'm minded to use more CONTEMPORARY botanical artwork for the seasonal banner image. If botanical artists want to contact me with suggestions as to appropriate images - whether their own or ones by other contemporary botanical artists - I'd be very happy to receive and consider all suggestions.

I have two constraints:

the artist must be listed on my website (or eligible to list on my website)
The image needs to lend itself to a panoramic format for the banner - via cropping if required - whatever format it is created in. So verticals in a portrait format with wide empty spaces either side won't work - but a landscape or square format with horizontals (such as in Winter Flowers) does work.

Obviously all contemporary botanical artwork is subject to copyright when used in this way and the artist must agree to the use of the image for a banner.

By way of credit I always create a link on the home page to the source of the image e.g. the artist's own website. (Try clicking the small image on the home page to see what I mean)

Do leave a comment below if you're interested in providing an image and/or would like to suggest a suitable image for future banners.

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